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East Africa Crisis

Help families fleeing violence, severe drought and famine in East Africa.

Will you help to provide more emergency water?

$180 will ensure a water truck can supply water for 660 South Sudanese refugees for one day.

Donation Amount$

^ Note: If funds raised exceed Tearfund’s requirements for this appeal, your gift will go to our General Disaster Fund for future disaster response and preparedness.

Tearfund will respond to the crisis as a member of the Integral Alliance

Thanks to your generous donations, more than 61,000 refugees in Uganda have accessed safe drinking water over the past several months. But more is desperately needed. Can you please help these desperate and traumatised people by supporting Tearfund to provide water trucks for another few months?

Your donation has helped provide:

South Sudanese refugees in Uganda

Water truck deliveries of 10,000L each for immediate needs of 660 families a day (61,000 refugees)

Counselling sessions for refugees traumatised by conflict

In Somalia

Cash transfers to the most vulnerable so they can buy food

Emergency water supplies

Nutritional support for malnourished children

388,000

children under five are acutely malnourished in Somalia

1 million

South Sudanese refugees have fled to Uganda

85%

of South Sudanese refugees are women and children under the age of 18

Where Tearfund is currently responding

Please Donate Today

$180 will ensure a water truck can supply water for 660 South Sudanese refugees for one day.

Donation Amount$

What’s happening in East Africa?

A combination of severe drought, famine and violence is affecting millions in South Sudan and Somalia. Listen to the radio interviews below for more context.

More than 20 million people may face starvation in a series of famines over the next six months. – World Food Programme (WFP)

South Sudan

More than one million people are either suffering from famine or are on the brink of it as a result of an ongoing conflict and drought in South Sudan.

Almost half the population now need assistance to meet their basic nutritional needs. This figure is expected to rise.

More than 2 million have fled the country, with more than one million to Uganda, where Tearfund's partner is meeting the water and trauma needs of South Sudanese refugees.

Somalia

There has been very little rain for more than three years.

That means 6.2 million are facing food insecurity and nearly three million people need urgent life-saving assistance.

We hope that the drought will break if the next rainy season in October 2017 is abundant, but until then, the food security situation remains poor.

Latest Updates

IMPORTANT: Water needed.

Good morning guys, I hope this email finds you all well. I’ve never sent an email like this from the field, but I feel to
do so tonight.

I don’t know if we have any funding for water for South Sudanese refugees… but if we do, may I humbly ask that we consider sending it over as a matter of urgency.

I’m up on the border of South Sudan with our partner in Rhino Camp. As you know, for the past 10 weeks, we have been funding a water trucking project, supporting both refugees from South Sudan and the host community in Uganda. Our funding came to an end last week. Technically, another organisation is supposed to have taken over but they haven’t.

Today we arrived in the camp and went straight to one of the water tanks —it was empty. Then we went to the next, and the next and the next. All empty. The families told me that are suffering hugely as they have not had water for three or four days. This water was their lifeline.

Multiple mothers were fighting back tears as they told me how precious water is to them for their cooking, their children and their health.

Because this other organisation hasn’t taken over water trucking, are we able to continue supporting this activity?

Please, if we have any money left over, can we send it to them to start doing short term water trucking, followed by a longer term more sustainable option?

Kindest regards,Helen Helen Manson
Field Communications

New matched funding!

Wednesday, 23 August 2017 — Alex Carter

Great news! Tearfund has received more funds from the New Zealand Government to match your funds!

We have some great news. Tearfund received $340,470 from New Zealand Government to match funds given by our generous supporters. This will enable us to double the number of drought-affected households we are supporting in Somalia until the end of November 2017.

Radio Interviews

Kiwi working with South Sudanese refugees in Uganda says "there's still hope for some". —Thursday, 16 March 2017

Kiwi father of two and the Country Director of Tearfund’s partner Tutapona currently in Bidi Bidi settlement Uganda, on the border of South Sudan Tim Manson joins Ali Mau on drive to talk about the terrible conditions there. —Thursday, 16 March 2017